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Legislative aides will continue negotiating into the evening over a slew of bills to tighten New York’s gun laws, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said.

Silver, D-Manhattan, held back the final details under discussion, but said that any agreed-upon package would contain a tighter definition of an assault rifle. State law currently defines an assault rifle as a semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine that has any two of a list of characteristics: a pistol grip, bayonet attachment, grenade launcher or folding stock.

Dozens of Democratic legislators are hoping the state will adopt a definition closer to the one used by New York City officials, where just one characteristic on the list triggers the ban. Silver said “I think we will come up with a reasonable definition (of assault weapons) and a reasonable closing of loopholes.”

Silver said stiffening penalties for existing crimes was under discussion, as was a strengthening of Kendra’s Law, which would keep more people with serious mental illnesses confined. Microstamping, which New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pushed in recent years, will not in the package, Silver said.

Those points are welcome news for Senate Republicans like Sen. Marty Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, who emphasized the talks could bear quick fruit.

“There’s been no agreements on anything, but there is conversation going on,” he said. “If you don’t do anything about illegal guns, it’s an exercise in futility.”

Asked about an expanded definition of an assault rifle — that might encompass rifles used in recent shootings in Newtown, Conn. and suburban Rochester — Golden, a former New York Police Department officers, said, “that’s still to be debated and talked about.”

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